...why would a person NOT be doing their optimal dps rotation in order to progress?
It's the exact same thing here with the fire mages and combust...

Casting combustion onto a shield protected mob that takes 99% less damage should be far away from the optimal damage rotation.
The bug only works in p2 when the big monstrosity is up. Noone should attack the boss during this phase, so the cimbustion thing is intended by 95% of the mages. Maybe 5% that don't know the encounter or fell asleep and didn't realize the big add have done it without intent...

Casting combustion onto a shield protected mob that takes 99% less damage should be far away from the optimal damage rotation.
The bug only works in p2 when the big monstrosity is up. Noone should attack the boss during this phase, so the cimbustion thing is intended by 95% of the mages. Maybe 5% that don't know the encounter or fell asleep and didn't realize the big add have done it without intent...

I was under the impression you combust before the shield, when stacks are up, then spread if after the shield and the add is up?
Wich would make sense from a dps standpoint, tossing you dots from old to new.

Casting combustion onto a shield protected mob that takes 99% less damage should be far away from the optimal damage rotation.
The bug only works in p2 when the big monstrosity is up. Noone should attack the boss during this phase, so the cimbustion thing is intended by 95% of the mages. Maybe 5% that don't know the encounter or fell asleep and didn't realize the big add have done it without intent...

I haven't seen the fight, so I don't know the exact spawn locations, but unless the Monstrosity spawns miles away from the boss, the dot spreading is just natural DPS. If you've got a really nice Ignite and Combustion ticking on the boss pre-shield then it's always a good idea (regardless of encounter) to spread those dots to anything nearby for what is essentially free-DPS. Then switch to the Monstrosity and continue as normal.

Not the nerf, no, but the change, yes.
As he explained -
Cleaves now do 100% of the damage to the secondary target (or 70%, or however much your specific cleave does), no matter the buff or debuff on the current target.
Which means that as Unsok gets a shield that protects him from a majority of the damage, then the "cleave" from spreading ignite/combust on to the boss (unclear of mage mechanics, so not sure if you spread ignite then combust, or just combust etc) assumes that it is suppressed by the 99% damage reduction shield, and has to buff the ignite an equal amount when it goes on to the mob that it is spread to. This, in turn, causes it to get HUGE for some reason, and is clearly bugged/unintended.

Evidently you managed to mis-interpret the actual way cleaves work in MoP (note: it was only Garalon where this wasn't working)

Sort of, and something we should take this opportunity to clarify. In Cataclysm, cleave-type mechanics double-dipped on damage bonuses, but we changed that universally in Patch 5.0 on a fundamental level. If you go back to Halfus or Wind Lord Mel'jarak, you'll find that cleave effects that derive their damage from the initial hit now only award the bonus damage on the target that is receiving increased damage.

Note that this works both ways. If you Sinister Strike a target that has a 50% damage reduction effect on it, your Blade Flurry will still do full damage to a secondary target, which previously would not have been the case.

The pending hotfix addresses a bug specific to the Garalon encounter which cause these new rules to not apply. Abilities that can hit a leg and the body simultaneously will still be extremely effective on the boss.

Basically, in Cata, whatever damage bonus/reduction you had on a boss applied to all cleave targets too. Now, it doesn't anymore. It takes the base damage you did before the target's damage multiplier/reduction, and applies that to each cleaveable target, before applying against their damage bonus/reduction effects.

That is not what is happening here though.

Last edited by ZeroEdgeir; 2012-11-13 at 05:20 PM.

Games are not necessarily "easier" today. You are just a better player.
It takes more now to impress many gamers than it did 2-5 years ago, because so much has already been seen and done.
Many players expect to be wow'd with every release of a beloved franchise.
These are generally NOT the fault of the developers, but the fault of many players over-hyping and/or setting expectations too high.

Basically, in Cata, whatever damage bonus/reduction you had on a boss applied to all cleave targets too. Now, it doesn't anymore. It takes the base damage you did before the target's damage multiplier/reduction, and applies that to each cleaveable target, before applying against their damage bonus/reduction effects.

That is not what is happening here though.

Actually, my point is that it's bugged - and thats why it goes insane. See Midwinter's video linked earlier to see how retarded this actually is.
If Garalon was derped up, there's no reason this boss can't either.

In any case - guess we'll gear some ring of frost-alts for Ambershaper, unless this is adressed. Anything else is just stupid, why bother with the hard phase.